Studious hobby, Recent Purchases

Few Hobbies and Games require you to do this kind of preparation and studies. The only thing I can compare it to is my wife's books while she is going through her masters degree, but unlike her where she goes through books and and is done with it I keep having to go back.

I'm not a writer so I can just imagine the stacks of Books and reference materials GURPS writers would have set up. This is just my prep for my Modern Fantasy Game and the bunch of posts I have line up which is about GURPS Magic and researching the option and templates players might be looking for my game (as well as tools for me to quickly generate NPCs).

I try to reference the pages every time I mention a rule as a mental exercise. If It wasn't so time consuming I would have the page reference in everything I mention lolz. I use the books so much, since I also collect them and buy them as PDFs what you see are mostly print outs and a photocopy of Basic Set (when basic set first came out with bad binding, I photocopied and bound it and it became my Copy for Abuse and penciled notes while the replacement copy is shelved for collection purposes).

I gotta love PDFs and the freedom to write notes down on the page without some OCD coming over me about writing on the books.

Printing More Books

I have a bunch of stuff to print out again, and printing things out can be pretty time consuming since I can only do it at 30 sheets at a time with the SCX-4200 samsung printer we have. I really have to be organized when I do it since one mistake can mean 30 sheets of paper and $2 worth of printer cartridge powder can be lost in a mistake. It suck to see a huge pile of error pages.

So I just got GURPS Action: Exploits. I didn't get Action: Heroes since it has too high a power level (250 points vs my 150cp PCs) and my influence for Archetypes is different from the archetypes given (drawing inspiration from Wilderness of Mirrors by John Wick) - which means I'll end up remaking the templates anyway. I like 100pt Templates with -50 disads since that's 50pts below my Character Creation parameters. If they are optimized and competent with just 100pts players have a lot of buffer customizing.

I also got Tactical Shooting, which really changes how the Templates are made up for Modern Characters. War Beneath Heaven Campaign is a Secret Magical Setting, so everyone mostly goes on without magic factoring in their day to day. No wonder James was singing so many praises about this book, when I finally got to read it its stuff my Captain has been drilling into us in Airsoft lolz.

There are a bunch of Books I will have to print out again because I seem to have lost the copy when we moved here to Makati (or I lent it and they forgot to give it back... a common situation amongst gamers).

I think I will post more about GURPS Action: Exploits in the future. Particularly running it in Roll20 and how best to approach the BAD system and the Chase Rules. I want to combine the Chase rules with GURPS Spaceships for some vehicle combat rules. I will have to make a bunch of tables and preparations for such.


 

RPing different ethnicities, cultures, and genders; Fear of Being Offensive

Leslie Chow from the Hangover is a legitimate character and I don't find it a disparaging archetype. Stereo types are tricky and for me, I'd just rather play them than Not Play them out of fear of being offensive. I just realized the huge gap that Fear of Being offensive can create in the awareness of the world and things around myself. I mean, if I ask certain questions I'm bound to offend someone's belief... what offensive compared to mis-informing people. If there is an ethical fault Mis-information is one, being offensive cannot be helped because our medium of communication is not telepathy with complete empathy of the situation.

I'm a big lover of freedom of expression, and in interactions and relationships we really don't know the boundaries until we cross it. but when we do Good-Faith is there to catch us and repair and strengthen these relationships. Good Faith is such a necessary element in society that the recent controversy regarding spying underlines how much Good-Faith has been so absent that it marks a breakdown in the ability of society to communicate empathically.

Back to being able to RP the variety of Beings and Conditions some of us would like to explore and contemplate. I know people enjoy RPGs for various reasons, so this post is definitely not for everybody and may fall in the lower tiers of nerdiness in the heirarchies of geek elitism. "Role-playing Different Peoples and Nationalities: How Boring!" comes to mind when I was much younger. But then again, these are real people and there is an inherent complexity to their problems and personal trials that even a glimpse of this can leave one speechless and doubting many long held beliefs. But yeah, philosophy nerds are pretty low tier in geek society so its not something people will want to talk about... hence the freedom of being a blog with no real audience Lolz. 

This is a Topic Covered in Happy Jacks that brought out a lot of discussion: Accents are Regionial, and not Racist (Damn it!). In fact its so taken for-granted it gets annoying if you want to be elitist about it, I mean you gotta be consciously a eugenics believer to believe that manner of speech has to do with race instead of linguistic culture. 

Having played in Online with various peoples of various nationalities there are a ton of accents one can be experiencing. If I'm trying to be clear and emphasize with who I'm talking to I'd eventually speak the words in their tone or accent. Speaking different accents is pretty fun, so fun that the wife and I have a bad habit of mispronouncing words as a way to test how far one can interpret the sound and spelling.

My wife and I have this little quirk where we mispronounce words. Like consider the sentence and try pronouncing everything differently and try to make it as alien sounding as possible. Basically thats a nasty habit I got from trying to learn other languages and exploring the accents and pronounciations of the many peoples we deal with. She's in an international Company in Finanace and I'm dealing with Internationals that deal with BPOs, so exercising the ability to fathom various pronounciations become a funny game we play almost unconsciously.

If you tried to learn a language like Mandarin and had to learn the 4 tones you begin to realize how you cannot hear the difference of these tones as a born english speaker. As a Tagalog speaker and Otaku, some japanese we deal with are amazed by how authentically we can capture their accent when we talk about the words and how close the sylabalic nature of Japanese is to Tagalog.

Its a world where accents is a trivial matter and we need to learn languages with very different alphabets and organization of speech... more than ever. If your a futurist or sci-fi geek, learning a Non-Romance language becomes an important experience when understanding how amazing and limited it is as a medium of communication. Again the nerdy topic, not for those who want to complicate their lives with complicated hobbies lolz.

Enter the GURPS Modern Fantasy game I'm running which is in an African Setting. One of the reasons behind it is because of how insignificant in the grand scheme of things It can feel like growing up from a country far from being the G7-20. To have no world policy leverage or attractive market to have any influence or protect one's self kinda sucks balls. Being one of the easiest to be bullied or made into a Pariah by more powerful countries really gives you another level of Disempowerment (if you think Cthuluh is scary; trying growing up in Syria as it is NOW; where girls are being sold off to for $300USD to have a chance to survive).

Growing up in the Philippines during the 80s onward, being the 3rd world upbringing has an interesting perspective in my socio-economic studies, the narrative I want to tell, and the current events as economies are slowing down. Listening to my “Kuya's (older male relative) generation talk about how it was in martial law growing (contrasting with the Marcos propaganda online at the present) gives an interesting perspective worth telling in a world that is experience record levels of unemployment (especially the youth) and conservative economic units (the extended families as a single household).

I don't have any African friends, is it racist if I run a game that has a large African population while being Asian? I mean I've felt my share of racism, at the same time I also feel like my ethnicity did not matter to the friends and interactions I've made. I think failing to explore those gray areas of human nature is worse than the “fear to offend” maybe finding it un-interesting or worth knowing... their real and human suffering maybe be a more worthy thing to be afraid off... if the argument holds any merit. 

Sunk Cost Effect and Benchmarks

Observing my players, myself, everyone I play with is one of my favorite parts of RPGaming. I admire those players who really RP their decision making and really taking on those cogntive biases that are interesting in story telling and having the discipline to overcome the cognitive biases that occure during the game that challenge their problem solving ability.

I've only experienced "Rage-Quit" once in a game, and it startled me a bit. Typically when one is frustrated with the GM people bare it and are polite until they have to leave never to come back again, but I was surprised by the Rage-Quit. I've had friends who tell story of Mastubatory GMs who exhibition their GM-Character and NPCs and completely make the other players an audience to flaunt their imaginary Ding Dong as Huge as they can possibly "creatively" narrate it and STILL these players would bare, laugh, look at each other (knowing they had the same bad feeling) and wait till the game is over never to invite the GM ever again. Thats my experience and those I know of Terrible GMs, nice GMs that challenge us and we were getting challenged (and it was getting exciting) only for someone to Rage-Quit was bizzare for me and for everyone else at the table.

Why Sunk Cost effect and Benchmarks. I realized that Sunk Cost effect is what makes missing an Attack regretful more than the failure in itself. Hyperbolic Discounting makes you want Utility NOW, but Sunk Cost effect makes you regret or get frustrated with every failure.

Recently my players reminded me of how calm and progressive they can be about problem solving. They didn't let set backs hold them down. They didn't feel as bad as a normally-emotion-regulating person has when a setback hindering them. They did well under pressure, they had some mistakes, but these mistakes took advantage of Background NOISE.

One of the things that make SCE(sunkcost effect) bad is having nothing but the unknown to deepen the regret and frustration of having failed. Age and experience, gives us benchmarks that tell us how many opportunities we will have in a given situation and it allows us to overcome this bias.

RPGaming is a great way to explore those emotions (LOLz Dr Phil!) and experience them more and more, until hopefully we learn from them and improve decision making skills.

When one of my GM's basically "reset" the adventure I admit I was a bit frustrated. Being out maneuvered was something I hated as any armchair Strategist and it threw all those Social engineering books i've studied both in military and psychology papers (and i real life business work) at my face because I failed to call on all those real world lessons I'm supposed to have (with a character who could execute it even if he was a cripple). I felt helpless when I could not problem solve my way in that one and I didn't know how to proceed without overwhelming the GM with my geek nerd-on with a barrage of questions and possibly spoiling the game for other people as I occupied the GMs time.**

Still, emotion regulation and overcoming bias should be instinctual. The set back is a set back, and my character was from a Failing Dynasty, such set backs is nothing when you've lost more than a ship you barely had a stake in. Still it also meant, he had more influence over the matter, etc. etc... All the cognitive gears should be turning and turning each other and VIOLA I don't feel bad anymore. I felt bad, but not any more and an open mind is the only frame-set that can see opportunities.

So i have to be optimistic, while some of my allies can be the conservative ones to reign in and challenge the optimistic strategy and hopefully we find Truth in between our perspectives. Vice versa if someone else is being optimistic, and its natural to reign in each other in a problem solving exercise. The Apolo 13 case study on problem solving is an inspiration of how the flow and participation could be for an RPG. 

**I will simply just talk to my party mates about my plans, and the objectives. They are free to take it, leave it or critique it, and also wing it (no plan survives intact). Nothing special or special rules needed, just basic REAL WORLD communication skills.

I should talk about how much and why I like BACKGROUND NOISE in decision making process. How it enhances and exercises the imaginative mind and why I seek it in the game, and don't mind it when the GM gives confusing signals (they should IMO) etc... I can have a whole post all about Noise.

Minorities in my stable of pregens

Exploring the modern world through games, I'm considering making my next batch of Pregens of something far less common and rather mundane considering Disenfranchised/Disadvantaged Minorities (to distinguish it from Elite Minority that typically rule).

Being a minority means being in a very weak position in society. The reason why the "weaker" is protected is because Democracy/Liberty does not means Might or Many makes Right (although most often forgotten; in at present Facts and Truth slowly lose their value).

Of course many people "feel" like a minority when they are in power, simply because its their first time to not-get their way that's another interesting dilemma that would be useful in game.

But being a real minority, under-represented and so few that no one cares if you and your people live or die is something interesting to play.

Please ignore this if you don't like this kind of clutter and overhead in your games...

I can't speak for others, I'm just guessing some people may feel the same as I do, but inter-connectivity has made the experience of being oppressed, a persecuted minority, more real and tangible than ever. Many liberties I take forgranted  are brought into new light, and degrees of seperation are overcome by empathy regarding the plight of such people.

What is strange is that playing a Psychopath or Sociopath is a more accepted norml and does not make people uncomfortable, but playing certain minorities can make people very uncomfortable. Sure the morality of a monster is a great vehicle to tell a story, but why can't playing these minorities be also.

In light of the persecution reminiscent in the last world war, i can't help but see the parallels and be fearful. Then the game in the brain takes over and curiosity wants to explore that fear and the emotions deeper. I can relate with these people to some extent, and can be made a social outcast by certain "mindset" if not for status and money.

Since we deal with Heroes and heroes need challenges to overcome, being a Minority... a persecuted minority in this day and age is something interesting to play.

at the risk of offending, I'm particularly curious about having characters that are LGBT and various minority faiths and circumstances. Most interesting is that if their circumstance, makes their beliefs or preferences harder and definitely there is a certain lacking of the same rights we have taken for-granted.

Several instances of complexity I can think off is inspired by real world events is the Philippine Hermaphrodite Runner, the canadian trangendered miss world contender, and of course the more controversial LGBT persecution in Africa and Russia. There is also the minority of Non-religious, and their killings and jailing in Sharia countries. Of course, educated and empowered women fall in this depending on the culture and countires.

Modern Day has many interesting and muddy issues and interesting circumstances and PEOPLES that would be too fun to ignore. A Game is as much a Vehicle of Story Telling, so why not deal with heavy issues? ANyway, its a game you can always turn down or turn up the gravity of the situation.

Anyway, the GM doesnt' have to explore it in gritty detail when he can see that people are uncomfortable, he can short hand the scene.

Host and Guest Protocol in RPG session

Talks with +Ken Kthulhu regarding technical set up for his Dark Heresy game made me think about why its a hard job being the GM.

I can compare it to being a Host and your players Guests. since there is no convenient etiquette protocol to reference I will supply my cultural hospitality protocol in Hangouts. (note that in Real Life Face to Face, these protocols are just ideal in polite society... gamers who wish differentiate themselves from Douches or D-bags may want to follow the protocol). 

Duties of a Host

Make Sure Guests are Comfortable, this includes making a comfortable environment - making sure your technical considerations for your Hangout Game is well in order.  

Take the time to entertain Each guest - GM facilitates and gives spotlight to each player.

Provide a means for other Guests to Busy themselves in the event - this is tricky, because it requires multi-tasking but in a Game either Face to Face or Hangouts.

Duties of a Guest

Its the Hosts's Event don't make it about you - when rules lawyers or dick players act out they are breaking this duty. In an event where there is out-game argument consider if it serves the game or it serves only your character. The GM is god and if he's not a douche he will work with you outside the game to deal with whatever prompted discussion. 

Guests Bear gifts, tokens of appreciation - well in games the GM forfeits this in exchange of emphasizing above, its Hangout/OnAir.  

As much as the Host makes the Guests comfortable, the Guests makes the Hosts job easier. 

And as in all things Deal in Good Faith. 

A little more imagination and empathy: Gamer Good Faith

I was having a discussion with friend about GMing and RPing, and we came to the topic of preparation and skills.

Personally I don't need the GM to make a big performance (unless it feels spontaneous and on a whim), practiced at improv, accents, and a lot of props prepared (virtual or actual). I look for a comfortable environment and trust. Everything else is really just made up of imagination, as +Christian Blouin put in the game "Its all in the theater of the mind' (I don't know where he was quoting from, but I remember it being a philosophy of the mind quote).

One big hindrance to imagination would be attitude. Lethargy would really hamper attitude, and checking to see how your player's day was actually prepares the GM how much effort he should allocate to power through bad moods or dispositions. I think i've covered that with a previous post in Emotional Energy.

Imagination can get hindered also by rules or technicalities. I noticed in a recent game I played, i was in "tactical mode" and based my narrative of that. I guess if the system was 3rd Gen RPGs that are focused on Narrative then I'd be inclined to give way to narrative and hold back my technical.

In that game I paid a small price for being reckless, I deviated from my plotted optimal strategy and suffered the predictable consequences. I guess in some systems you have to really master the rules to get it out of the way as it informs you on the best course of action.

My inner munchkin feels bad by the mistake but my role-playing part feels indifferent. I did do the research and should have trusted 2-months-ago Justin with his final analysis.

Back to Imagination AND EMPATHY fueling the creative side of the game I find myself talking about +Mark Knights Topsy Turvy Traveller post where he regrets certain GMing decision. As one of the players I didn't mind the Retro Feel and simply assumed the best of him (which is very Naive but I find a great way with dealing with people even though I'm the paranoid guy who looks for and sees risks everywhere).

The Empathy part of imagination was that I tried not to second guess his assumptions, because I need to trust the GM. I also try to do the same with all my GMs and Players (but as a GM I screen players). Trusting and Assuming the best in intentions is where I think one cannot go wrong, even if they are fooled more than thrice to learn. Its that empathy that makes all my Roll20 games enjoyable (I admit its Naive but its not like I'm giving anyone bank information).

It also helps that after many many hours of Debates and Flame wars, I learned my lesson about never assuming the Assumptions of another person. I can't read minds, I may have clues, but I will never know for certain their assumptions and motivations and the Diplomatic thing to do is deal in Good Faith.

Good Faith (a wikipedia link)
One of the business concepts that is in the tackled also in Philosophy, Ethics and even in Cognition/Psychology. You can say, its even a pillar of society because without it (or very very little of it) destroys economies, communities, and civilization.

Pretty much how Empathy is used as I talked about it above falls under Good Faith. but there is a Catch to good faith, you have to be clear in assumptions and proceed to communicate clearly and comprehensively. Often you will write and communicate like a lawyer being clear with your objectives, motives, and intentions.

I know it bogs down the game, but I do ask if certain moves are legal (unless its a Yes&/Yesbut game where there are no permissions) before proceeding. The problem which arises and triggers "Lawyery-ness" is assuming that your assumptions are the same.

(Even friendly) Arguments begin when we have contradicting claims, and there is need to peg assumptions and bring about the burden of proof. My policy is that if I'm not prepared to bear the burden of proof I'm not going to argue AND if the other person doesn't know how Burden of Proof works then I don't argue AND if the person doesn't know that assumptions have to be pegged down I do not entertain even a "friendly" discussion.

Its like sparring but the person doesn't know how to keep it non-lethal, its just gets lethal... and people get pissed and everything is ruined.

Gender bending without creeping out people

In another game I played a girl character, Sibila Wuchenco. By Playing i mean, i used "I" not "She" and it was not awkward or creepy. I'm pretty happy about the response, because as a GM I would have to "impersonate" a female NPC and have to RP her well (entertaining and consistent). 

Its not that hard to gender bend without being creepy, simply because there is a huge list of things NOT-TO-DO when playing a female character discussed all around the interwebs. All you need to do is listen, and it makes sense why those NOs are creepy. 

• avoiding needless detail - be discreet
• of course understand the subject matter - hopefully your common sense and experience that tell you how the world is to women. I guess if its coming from somewhere it has to come from your wife, sister, daughter, friend, mother, or >insert healthy female relationship<. 
• know your audience - the other players and the GM, obviously knowing their tolerances helps RP a character that hits entertaining without being creepy. 
• an honest motive - why you are playing that character*

*Honest portrayal is basically having no hidden motives, despite the most "cunning" of intentions hidden motives can quickly be exposed on the table because you have to "feed that beast". GMs are usually too busy to have any hidden motives when gender-bending, so following through the core-character motives is easy. In my case, I was playing about 6x that week and I wanted something different, very different and something I can flex my empathy muscle since these are old friends. 

The woman I played is a mish mash of many women I know, there is a certain patterns that can explained by "personality physics" of a character. One particular woman I am "impersonating" is this very skilled broker who uses active listening and industry expertise to make clients comfortable. there is nothing untoward about interaction with her, everything is very professional and courteous. What I find amazing is that gender does not become an issue, a tool, a weakness, or a factor when I deal with her. 

A motive I can dig up, is that i wish life was not as messy and complicated when it comes to gender in real life. I guess an appreciation of how complicated it is, might be tempering the way I play. 

 I don't think i'll playing a female character in the future, its good to play with old friends I don't think its good to play with new people. Its going to be creepy regardless of how skilled you are, and the first impression you make is going to WEIRD. 

Trying to study more Character Accents

I was checking out G+ Hangouts if anyone wanted to discuss accents or practice them. I don't feel uncomfortable working out an accent with a stranger, its not for a professional need anyway its for a game.

I'm getting bored with my Pirate-y Old man accent. I like playing older uninhibited men, (hehehe like my father LOL). When such men say something incredulous they don't take a credibility hit as badly as a younger man, because of all the history they built up.

I like doing accents because the Vulnerability pushes me to get more into character. There is a level of commitment in embarrassing yourself in-front of strangers. Being able to perform and free to fail was a great way of getting over my anxiety when I was cripplingly shy when I was younger.

Happy Jacks have a good episodes on accents where a listener who was an expert chime in.

Anyway, the other accents I have is the "Latin" one because its just a variation of the Filipino Broken English Accent. Of course there is the Broken Filipino Accent Rex Navarrete.

Filipino Provincial Accents speaking English are plenty, but are lost to a foreign audience. It funny to some filipinos, I'm not entirely capable of grasping it. A close friend would do is mix Irish and "Batangeneo" accents to produce an "irish batangeneo" which is hillarious, what he would do is use the Irsh accent, then add in the Batangeneo suffixes and mannerisms.

There is the Rhotacism Accent which i thought was a cartoon accent until I met people who really had them. I was asking my brother, is he faking that or is it real - he talks like elmer fudd? I don't know anyone in the Philippines who has that accent.

An accent I was able to do once because I finished listening to Nightflyers, which I cannot find out who read it, but it was a woman with a Caribbean Accent (I'm guessing Hatian). Damn, got find my old copy of that and re-listen for the accent.


Australian and Kiwi is something we used to train our agents for, Carl is good with that accent. I actually need to learn this accent because I'm playing with them more and My filipino ears is not able to pick up the words as quickly.

Eastern Eurpoean or the Russian Accent is also pretty fun to play, but I have not had a character that fit that profile quite well. I got a lot of ideas listening to Kimi do her russian accent.

Chinese speaker accents is tricky, there is the "holywood" version which sounds more like singaporean than mainlander (which singaporeans have good humour about, they would even type La on chat messaging). then there is the accent in mainlanders or holywood and chinese cinema actors like Jacking Chan and Jet Li which is harder for me to define.

• Chinese accents can pronounce Ls and Rs (Beijing Accent is like japanese, but unlike japanese they just use MORE  "Rs" not complete phasing Ls out).
• B and P are interchangable, the same way we can't hear the tones they can't here the difference between B and P. So if you listen to Jet li's accent he would say Better Bebber (better pepper), but thats not all of it.  

Japanese accent is easy, because I grew up in Anime. Its also boring given the crowd I game with, anyone my age can do a convincing japanese accent. Also, many of my generation when listening to japanese can pick the words out and sometimes get the gist out. Every High Schooler who was an avid anime fan would have tried to learn japanese - I did, my little sister did, my brother did.  We can even pronounce it with a good understandable accent. Also there are a lot of Language Similarities to a Malay Based language as to Nippongo. The syllable structure is similar.

anecdote: I one time helped immigration because they could not understand a Japanese person regarding some requirements. I was in the immigration office at the time, and the japanese man was being asked some additional requirements because there was a bureaucratic error. Its not that I used japanese, but used Gestures and focusing on Key words he would know like: passport and plane and said it slowly. That was such a wonderful and memorable experience. It taught me gestures and key words were more important in communication because people naturally realize a Schelling point to what the circumstance may mean and are looking for these key words. 

I work with a fair number of indians, and have made some indian friends because of the BPO industry here. The accent is fairly easy to mimic, but hard to understand. The funny thing is to Mimic it is to Understand it, so I end up mimicking the accent of the Indian I'm talking to without any intention to mock them. Being polite, I would have to rehearse what I'm going to say mentally to maintain my accent.

the English gentleman accent I can't hold for long, I can do it in a sentence at a time and with some mental rehearsal slowing down my "Improv".

The Amercian accents, there are so many. I guess its a great way to make an anology of how regional accents work in other countries.

The new-york accent is very easy to find sources online, there are a lot of movies and youtube videos of people practicing it. I guess I can try that since it is an accent you don't here much in the Philippines. I kinda know it from living in Jersey (my family is all over there). My brother makes a good impersonation of that accent since he's lived there for about 10years.

American accents are lost to a Philippine audience, as much as Filipino accents are lost to non-Filipinos.

The best I can do right now is practice my accents, when I have an opportunity to game. Given how busy anyone is outside of game, practicing out of game is a feat for me.
So many accents to choose from, and more

First Time to Play House of the Blooded

First time to Play House of the Blooded. Thanks to our GM +Tobie Abad and thanks to the players +Rocky Sunico, +mahar mangahas, +Rachel Jerilyn Teng, +Erich Lichnock for playing. Sorry we didn't get to have a picture because we were in a hurry to start. 

The backstory of the session can be found at Tobie's Blog Tagsessions under House of the Blooded.  

A narrative mechanic system really is easy on the GM, but requires a higher level of skill in improve that I'm capable off. Tobie's days as my editor in Malate Literary Group in DLSU shows, so is his training as a director for ABS CBN, and his Theater experience. So when tobie suggested that I run MTraveller I happily and subtle declined by just giving a +1 to he suggestion LOL. 

I'm, like Erich, schooled in the Grognard school of gaming LOL, but happy jacks has given me inspiration to try new things and Flex my Rigid tendencies. 

Those who have gamed with me growing up knows that my current RP style is owed to my best man +Henry Vargas whose style of gaming is to All-out-RP and play to all the disadvantages in a mix that is both dangerous and hilarious.  Its so hard to keep a straight face that I burst out embarassingly when I drank and think of what I just did. I didnt get a chance to laugh off my RP and get it out of my system. 

Having an opportunity to talk about the system you really need to filter your players - players who you can trust, and mature enough not to abuse the amount of power the system gives players. Making up the details of the game was rather hard for me, it requires greater Player initiative AND a skill in writing where you have a tool set of plots and complications. 

When X happens you have all the story formulas you can draw from. It really helps that I had about 300+ hours of sci-fi audiobooks in the last four years to help me have a guess, but I've forgotten all the details that goes with those 300 hours. Just a vague intuition of how some stories pattern. 

Even if I were to GM something more my school of gaming, the work, the planning, and the coordination is something I cannot make. It is volumes greater than the player's (thats why I really treat it like a dinner party bringing a lot of food offerings to the game, my contribution for the GM's efforts as evidence by the Pix).  

Game started around 9pm and ended 1:30am. A masterful use of time and pacing. We didin't have AC because of Philippine Holyweek which is the time when buildings can get their maintenance done.

* Finished Half Life 2 and all epsidodes. 

* Started playing portal 

Rant 

my Samsung np370r4e-s06ph does not have drivers for its own graphics card) #WTFwindows8. 

Can't wait until Linux Steam matures and then I'll switch this laptop to 100% Ubuntu because Windows 8 Deleted my Dual boot >:(( . For now The windows 8 will allow me to buy Cartography Software for my gaming and other gaming software that is Windows only. 

I wish gaming was more Linux ready; there are software venture businesses here in Philippines but given the time and effort it takes to make something as complex it costs about 2 years of a teams salary to start up; and all the logistical challenges that come with it.

Role playing moral dilemmas

It is an opportunity to reflect and dig deep. It is in a friendly environment where nothing of yours is truly at stake, and you are asked to dig deep and ask questions about your character using your own experience and

Three dimension characters change. They evolve, which means player has to move from one PoV to another. There is a medium to change POV and to do it safely and explore various people.

One dimensional character is what is on paper, two is what he is give certain situations and three is how he changes over time. In RPing we have to be 3d. We have to be flexible breaking up our concepts and building them back up given new data and experiences.

I think this is where we can grow a lot, a medium to grow and change by having characters change. Oh yeah, and we change as our characters change. We are influenced by the rationality we have created for these characters. Although it is a little change, it helps us grow the means to understand people better.

I think the groups collective EQ has a way of providing rich ground to improve those are still maturing, and to further explore other ideas.

I guess RPing gold, what we dig up in good games are really GOLDEn opportunities to grow and mature,

Topics of a Multi-media RPG presentation

I'm currently working with some artists right now for the Map. Now, wondering what would be a fast way of introducing a setting and setting concepts? I was considering using both Video and Audio presentations for getting people to understand the setting.

I listen to a lot of history podcasts: I got Chinahistorypodcast.com, Byzantium (Lars Brownsworth, and Robin Pierson)... etc. So another medium by which people can learn about aspects of Low Tech Societies....

I also started checking out the RPG podcasts, first one I've tried is Happy Jack RPG podcast.

So i got to thinking wouldn't it be easier to have an audio or video presentation for setting details. Topics like:
Feudalism
Roman Imperialism
The Bureaucracy of China and Rome
Courtiers and they employ power* ( a mostly ignored element in settings).
Roman Warfare
Patron Client System - Roman, most politics, etc..
... oops that sounds like history, but stuff people need to understand to understand the setting. I'd rather give a historical overview and say: ...and this setting is just like that or its like that but with this twist.

Aspects that are important to a setting, in one date:
The Princes / The Dukes
Their Armies and Commanders
Their Cities and Holdings
Persons of Interests
The Geography (Going over the map)
Common Lore of the Realm

So I was wondering if I could make an RPG podcast of such broken down into 30 mins episodes. Anyway, I'll have the nitty gritty stats as part of the booklet, but the main points summarized. The idea is to make it easily accessible, and players to do their background reading.

[Anygame system] Defining Character

My wife was asking me about challenging questions to answer for job interviews. She got kinda bored with the IQ tests and the deconstructive thinking questions, So I pitched her my new SOP of questions to figure out how the Player is planning to role-play his character which she found fun.

I've gotten into different opinions about the meanings of some disadvantages, the parenthesis pertains to GURPS disadvantage. I find these essential questions to start on players to answer about their character. A short paragraph each, an essay or a quick discussion would be enough. The GM should take notes, because using this information to add a level of complexity to their game takes very little effort. All these are a key to the decision making process of a Character and allows the GM quickly tailor a scenario to best challenge them.

Social Obligation (Sense of Duty) - How many social obligations does the character maintain (and eat up their time), how strong are they, where are they in their hierarchy of priorities? Note: In gurps, the disadvantage pertains to a size, intensity and the among time these obligations take up is based on other disadvantages (Duty, Fanaticism, and an Aspect of Honor).

Humanity (Pacifism) - the capacity to take another person's life or make others suffer. What does it take for the character to take a life? Can it be over a small thing, a big thing, just his own life, or will it need the threat of loved ones? This also pertains to how much can a character tolerate amounts of suffering vs not particularly caring at all.

Intolerance (Intolerance) - Intolerance usually pertains to a Culture, Ethnicity/Race, Lifestyle, Belief structure, Social Class, or Institution. Figure this one last, because even if someone thinks they are pretty tolerant, their other answers would point to something they are not aware of.

Belief Structure (Discipline of Faith) - The disadvantage pertains to the degrees of commitment and the physical discipline one needs to maintain it. Pan-theistically. Personally, I would ask the Player to describe his character's belief structure with a few questions:

• What is X's belief structure?
• What does the belief structure ask of X?
• How much commitment or sacrifice will X do for his/her belief? Will he sacrifice all possession, loved ones, their own life?
• Does it affect his tolerance/acceptance for other beliefs, lifestyles, social policies, etc... ?

note: This is a topic, I as a GM, pay a great deal of attention to. How I treat, role-play, or act concerning the beliefs is something I tread carefully on but draw great amounts of Role-playing Drama. Currently, in the flux of culture, information, and innovation we learn that we are constantly reshaping our view of the world based on how to best accommodate the infinite perspectives possessed by the peoples of the world. Then there are those who see this change or this accommodation of others as anathema, because it affects the measure of comfort and structure they have grown up around. I want people to be aware of their character's beliefs not just because of political correctness reasons but because Beliefs determine Character Choices.
This is a game-theory aspect, and thus a strong influence in the over-reaching strategy players will adopt. If a character is empirical, this can lead to a different
set of options a faith-based character would have.

Ex. Lets take a Secular Humanist who will be ready to sacrifice something they hold greater importance than their own life to perform a greater common good falls under what in your referendum?

Personal Integrity (Code of Honor) - How does the character know them-selves, how much do they value their promises, and what lengths the character will go to redeem or maintain their self image. Honor is usually defined by a culture's perspective, I chose Integrity as a broader term to ask players about. Integrity that can lead to one's death, but death in one's own terms is at -5 (like pirate's or professionals), but under the terms of another (like a soldier, knight, warrior following a leader) it is -10, and under worse terms like strange circumstances (a storybook chivalric knight caught up by circumstance) -15.

Respect for Order, Authority and Law (Honesty) - While integrity is internal, Honesty is more external (because it actually grants a reaction bonus from other). Since the Honesty and Honor two tends to blur so often, I will describe these set of questions as how a person Views the place of Order, Government, Law, and Authority in society.

Responsibilities (Duty) - We take jobs for granted, but Characters tend to have jobs to or something they do to support them financially or psychologically. Nothing removes the immersible experience like removing authentic human drama: responsibilities. What is considered a regular set of responsibilities falls under the -10 range of points. More or Less affects the character in their choice of how to spend their time. Characters who chose to have a little responsibility as possible vs those who take on more than they can handle have a notable affect on their mindset. In game aspects, the responsible ones do most of the work while the less responsible ones enjoy most of what the work benefits. Bottom line it is overall productivity, stress levels, and time options.

Notice that Characters who fall outside these parameters (no such disdvantages) have the broadest options, at the same time suffer the social and rational disadvantages from not having defined these traits. The GM should require as part of back story, instances where the character violated any of the 7 basic premises:

• A person with no social obligation has no person who naturally are obligated to care for them (unless they paid points for it).
  
• A person has no problem taking another humans life or making others suffer, has done so to make them realize they are such.
• Character with no identifiable tollerance, will find one after asking all the other questions
  
• A character usually practices their belief structure, lack of any one conviction will show with the many tests of character in adventure.
• A character with no Responsibilities have very unusual habits because they fall outside the working norm.
  
• A character who has no respect for order, authority, and law will have trouble working with any other organized body and will usually work independently.
• Character who has no integrity will usually take the easiest deal and not easiest deals are good deals. In the character's history, these life defining choices have a tendency to show up at inopportune times.